The House's three-committee impeachment inquiry released a report Monday morning finding President Joe Biden has "engaged in impeachable conduct," including an "abuse of power" when he was vice president and "obstruction of justice" as president to cover his family's "global influence peddling racket" to defraud the United States.
"The totality of the corrupt conduct uncovered by the committees is egregious," says the executive summary of the 292-page impeachment report released by the House Oversight, Judiciary, and Ways and Means committees. "President Joe Biden conspired to commit influence peddling and grift. In doing so, he abused his office and, by repeatedly lying about his abuse of office, has defrauded the United States to enrich his family."
The release coincides with Day 1 of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Monday's report does not conclude the Biden impeachment inquiry, but provides an official summary of the "evidence gathered to date" to give to the House and Senate a roadmap in the event Congress moves forward with an impeachment of the president.
Just days after the July 13 assassination attempt on Republican nominee Donald Trump, Biden quit the race and handed the torch to Vice President Kamala Harris, potentially rendering a Biden impeachment moot in these final months of his term.
The report acknowledged Democrats "cheapened" impeachment after the failed attempt to disqualify Trump with one impeachment as president — on Ukraine aid during the 2020 primary cycle — and another on Jan. 6, 2021, after he left office. The latter was an acknowledged attempt to disqualify Trump from running for president in 2024.
"Despite the cheapening of the impeachment power by Democrats in recent years, the House's decision to pursue articles of impeachment must not be made lightly," Monday's summary concluded. "As such, this report endeavors to present the evidence gathered to date so that all members of the House may assess the extent of President Biden's corruption."
The key evidence against Biden when he was "no scandals" former President Barack Obama's vice president includes:
- "Conspiracy to monetize Joe Biden's office of public trust to enrich the Biden family" through the $27 million received from foreign influence peddling and the use of shell companies to "conceal these payments."
- "Joe Biden used his status as vice president to garner favorable outcomes for his son's and his business partners' foreign business dealings," including Ukraine, China, Russia, and Kazakhstan.
- "The Biden family leveraged Joe Biden's positions of public trust to obtain over $8 million in loans from Democratic benefactors," but millions from those loans "have not been repaid" and there is no legal paper trail proving otherwise, raising "serious questions about whether these funds were provided as gifts disguised as loans."
Impeaching a sitting president over actions taken during a previous administration would be unprecedented, but the three House committees' report outlined key evidence for impeachment against Biden when he was president, too — all related to an alleged cover-up of historic proportion:
- The Biden Justice Department and FBI "afforded special treatment to President Biden's son, Hunter Biden," including slow-walking criminal investigations to force "the statute of limitations to expire on the most serious felony charges."
- The Biden DOJ "misled Congress" on "independence of law enforcement entities in the criminal investigation of Hunter Biden" and only granted Attorney General Merrick Garland-appointed prosecutor David Weiss — from Biden's home state of Delaware — "special counsel status after the investigation came under congressional scrutiny."
- The Biden White House "obstructed" Congress by blocking key evidence and witnesses in the impeachment inquiry and the investigation of "President Biden's unlawful retention of classified documents."
Included in the report but not highlighted in the executive summary's impeachment evidence was witness intimidation and President Biden's knowledge of Hunter Biden's intent to defy congressional subpoenas — a crime which the Garland DOJ has jailed former Trump associates and potential 2024 surrogates Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon for months during this presidential election cycle:
- "Federal law protects whistleblowers from retaliation, and efforts to intimidate these whistleblowers raise serious concerns about potential felonious obstruction of the committees' investigation," page 260 of the report read. "The willingness of the Hunter Biden legal team to push the Biden Justice Department into investigating whistleblowers shows the extent to which Hunter Biden believes he can influence the investigation in a manner favorable to him."
- "President Biden had prior knowledge of Hunter Biden's intent to defy two duly authorized congressional subpoenas."
Also cited in the report on page 290 is the Biden DOJ's plea deal that was allegedly coerced by Biden's public proclamations of Hunter Biden's innocence in the course of the investigation. A judge rejected the plea deal as unprecedented, ultimately leading to prosecution to move forward against the sitting president's son.
"To ensure that the Justice Department, which President Biden controls by virtue of his constitutional position, knew exactly where he stood, the president publicly claimed that his son was innocent of the charges that his Department was investigating," the report read.
"Thereafter, the Biden Justice Department offered Hunter Biden an unprecedented plea agreement — that was so ill-devised it fell apart in open court under the most basic questions — and openly targeted witnesses that dare to speak out about the president's and his son's criminal conduct.
"This is not the adversarial system. This is not justice. This is obstruction and corruption, and it deserves a constitutional remedy."
Biden, 81, has said he is president for a "few more months," raising questions about whether he might hand the reins to Harris sooner than Jan. 20 if she were to win the presidency in November, get tapped in the Dec. 15 Electoral College vote, and be certified by the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress.
If the House voted for impeachment and the Democrat-held Senate cast an unprecedented vote to remove Biden, Harris would become the first woman president and the first Indian-American U.S. president — if only for a few months — even if Trump were to win the White House.